About 30 demonstrators protested Laird’s arrest Tuesday night at the Public Safety Building, displaying a sign that said: "Hands off black women."...
The video shows an officer striking Laird with his knee several times to take her to the ground and while she was on the ground kicking and struggling with officers trying to handcuff her. The officer also struck her once in the torso with a closed fist during the struggle before using a Taser on her legs. Police also placed a "spit hood" over her head. Laird can be heard saying "I can't breathe" several times as she struggled with police before the hood was placed over her head...

Laird confronted an employee at the mall food court about her phone that had been stolen. She displayed a knife and made threats against the employee before mall security called police at 5:15 p.m., saying Laird was "out of control." Laird also threatened to kill mall security staff after they confronted her. While officers tried to arrest her, Laird attempted to kick and scratch them. She spit in the face of one officer before she was “controlled outside of the mall through the use of an electronic control device.”

I'm not trying to defend either the police officers or this woman, but if someone is resisting arrest, what are your options? Is there any way safe way to subdue somebody who is behaving aggressively without beating? I'm honestly asking since I have no experience in such matters.

There was a link on Drudge this morning to a brawl at an IHOP in Memphis. All of the participants were African-American. After the YouTube video clip played, it then started automatically loading other fight clips from the same YouTube channel, almost all of which involved people of color. The crime statistics show that minorities are several times more likely to commit violent crimes. And then those same minority communities wonder why they are over-represented in the prison system.

I think the cops quickly realized that they were dealing with someone who was mentally unhinged, because, if they thought she was sane & making those sort of threats, she'd be dead now.

It's amazing that anyone is stepping forward to defend this woman after such an egregious display of aggression to those around her. Read the article: it wasn't just the Madison cops she threatened. She threatened everyone who dealt with her until the cops showed up.

I work in the industrial park on the NW side of Milwaukee near the closed Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. It's just to the east of Menomonee Falls. The Mall died because of exactly what has happened at the East Point Mall in Madison. Nobody will shop here. They don't think it's safe.

So they stay in the Falls, or they head north to Germantown.

The City Council Member for this area insists that retail is needed to revitalize the community, ignoring the obvious expansion to the already existing industrial base, which actually employs a great deal of local workers. Retail is not going to move here.

The Target just east of the abandoned Mall just closed last year. There are strip malls where half the available storefronts are empty. It's sad, because it is really not that bad.

But the few, who only have their pride left to defend, bring down and entire community.

The charge seems to be that she was in their control before the knees, punch, and tasering occurred. In the video one cop has her with her arms behind her back - I presume she's not restrained because they seem to be getting her down to put cuffs on - then a second cop comes in and delivers the blows.

Is there any way safe way to subdue somebody who is behaving aggressively without beating? I'm honestly asking since I have no experience in such matters.

My son has taken karate for many years, so I have some exposure to this sort of thing, having had stuff demonstrated on me. There are all sorts of combinations of leverage/pain that can be applied to a person to force compliance. All can be done without injuring the person... as long as they comply. All have significant risk of causing injury if the person struggles against them.

Male officers arresting women has always been fraught with danger. Physically detaining and handcuffing someone who does not want to go to jail requires that you overpower the suspect as quickly and decisively as possible, to avoid injury to them or you. Women, at least in my experience, are MUCH more likely to make excessive force complaints, even if they fought like hell, which some do.Add a weapon and race as complications, and the window for "just the right amount of force" becomes very narrow, indeed.

Instead of asking: How do we achieve equality in arrest statistics? we need to be asking: How can technology be used to improve and enhance the experience of being subdued, restrained and stuffed into the back of a patrol car?

Bitch had threatened someone with a knife. It's not a game. After she brandished a weapon and demonstrated aggressive intent, the police are totally justified in batoning the living shit out of her until she submits utterly. Black folks aren't treated fairly but, Lord, they love to aggravate the problem with their idiocy.

An interesting social development of the last 20 years or so is the "outbreak" of female violence, especially in, but certainly not limited to, the black community.

Women used to smack their kids. They used to smack their friends. They used to smack their men & their men smacked back harder. But, now, they get into major league public brawls with other women; sometimes, as with that poor girl in the bathroom brawl in a NJ high school, with deadly effect.

An unintended consequence of women lib: now chicks get to be as violent & deranged as the guys?

Hands off black women... who are brandishing knives?Either she was or wasn't. And surely, if she wasn't then cops have some explaining to do. But if she was, do the protesters who stressed her race think that black people should somehow be allowed to brandish knives because they have black skin?

Ignorance is Bliss said: "In general, the police get to decide whether or not to arrest you. You get to decide how much force they will need to use." Excellent statement of the basic issue. Once you are in their cross-hairs, you need to stop with the physical stuff and work on the verbal stuff, and even that at just the right time, maybe with your lawyer.

Police protocol requires them to establish physical control and compliance. If they don't get it at first, they escalate. Because they too are human, adrenalin and uncertainty can make things much worse, and needlessly so.

"The video shows an officer striking Laird with his knee several times to take her to the ground and while she was on the ground kicking and struggling with officers trying to handcuff her. The officer also struck her once in the torso with a closed fist during the struggle before using a Taser on her legs. Police also placed a "spit hood" over her head. Laird can be heard saying "I can't breathe" several times as she struggled with police before the hood was placed over her head...

Laird confronted an employee at the mall food court about her phone that had been stolen. She displayed a knife and made threats against the employee before mall security called police at 5:15 p.m., saying Laird was "out of control." Laird also threatened to kill mall security staff after they confronted her. While officers tried to arrest her, Laird attempted to kick and scratch them. She spit in the face of one officer before she was “controlled outside of the mall through the use of an electronic control device.”And this shows the concept of Action - Reaction. And those who might have a confrontation with cops should learn about this concept as it might save you from a beatdown and arrest.But here goes - ACTION - she threatens to kill someone REACTION - cops are called Action - she threatens to kill security guards when the confront her REACTION - cops willl arrest her ACTION she attempts to kick and scratch them REACTION - they kneed her, and strike her in attempt to subdue her ACTION - she resists arrest REACTION - they put a hood over her head and tase her legs ACTION - she claims she cant breath REACTION - well then stop resisting arrest you idiot.

"Male officers arresting women has always been fraught with danger. Physically detaining and handcuffing someone who does not want to go to jail requires that you overpower the suspect as quickly and decisively as possible, to avoid injury to them or you. Women, at least in my experience, are MUCH more likely to make excessive force complaints, even if they fought like hell, which some do."

Thats the old chauvanism at play. women want equality. A cop arresting them this way is an example of that.

If you can't find a better cause for which to demonstrate, it's time to stop demonstrating!

Weapons and threats to kill, plus refusal/inability to comply with arresting officers will generate a forceful arrest.

I would like to personally congratulate the police officers involved for arresting this lady without shooting her. I'm sure she has mental problems. No one really believes that one can get away with waving knives and threatening to kill people with impunity.

Who is this Johnson of the Boys and Girls Club, anyway? Is he nuts, demanding that the charges be dropped?

I pity the police, I really do. If people in the community don't stand up and call these people out out for their really bad ethical standards in trying to defend the indefensible while intimidating the police, the people in the community shouldn't be surprised when their community goes bad.

Two officers were treated at the hospital. What about their families? Is the new rule supposed to be that police must allow themselves to be injured/killed without fighting back?

"This young lady had no criminal history, worked at the mall. Her cellphone was stolen. She was agitated, but when you continue to see videos like this, it creates mistrust," Johnson said.

What I see is someone who does not know or care how to properly resolve a conflict. If your cell phone gets stolen, call the cops, don't threaten people with a knife. When the cops show up, don't resist arrest.

Very simple. And yet look at all the people who believe an injustice has been done to her, who came out in support of her, who thinks the cops should have resolved this some other way.

The Wise Latina™ says: "For generations black and brown parents have given their children 'the talk' - instructing them never to run down the street; always keep your hands where they can be seen; do not even think of talking back to a stranger; threaten people with a knife if you get frustrated; yell and scream and fight the police rather than cooperate - all out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them."

Bitch had threatened someone with a knife. It's not a game. After she brandished a weapon and demonstrated aggressive intent, the police are totally justified in batoning the living shit out of her until she submits utterly. Black folks aren't treated fairly but, Lord, they love to aggravate the problem with their idiocy.

I wonder if the family would've preferred a mob dealing with their lunatic demon spawn instead...

I do wonder if there is any behavior deplorable enough for Progressives to not protest in support of it.

So she said "I can't breathe" but I didn't see anything in the story about her death. Is "I can't breathe" a new catchphrase you use when police are forced to deal with you that is supposed to make them back off because of Eric Garner? Crying wolf is just not a good idea.

It's time to retire the use of "Wonderbread" to describe white people. Who outside the ghetto still eats that shit? You can still buy it at the BP and Capitol Petro food deserts where Madsion's two most recent shootings happened.

That was very racist. The white police in effect said that this black woman was not worth the cost of the bullets. We know they would spend the whole clip on a white boy, and if he moved then another clip would be used to finish the job.

From watching the video, that cop was out of control. There is force, which compels compliance by superior strength, and there is violence, which extorts compliance by bodily harm and the threat of more of it. The first cop was using force, with less than stellar results, but nobody looked to be in any danger. The second cop escalated immediately to violence. It is possible that he felt threatened by the crowd, and wanted to terminate the encounter as rapidly as possible. I suppose he had also heard about a knife being brandished. But it looked to me like he thought the first cop was screwing the pooch, and decided to show him how a real man beats up a woman.

Frankly, at the first resistance, the cops should have swept her, body-slammed her and used a wrist bar to handcuff her. If they needed to, they should have given her a few body shots to slow down all the resistance. This is not a referee'd contest with rules and the cops are not expected to handle some fractious moron with kid gloves. Fight the cops, get your ass kicked. (using only that force necesary to overcome the suspect's resistance, of course).

An inability to do this any more probably has led to some of the more questionable police shootings. The fight was really an overly-long wrestling match and the cops started to lose, and panicked.